Congress OKs 3% Pentagon Spending Cut : Votes $292 Billion for Defense, Avoids Arms Confrontation

Congress, stepping back from a confrontation over President Reagan’s arms control policy in the wake of the Iceland summit, Wednesday passed a $292-billion defense spending bill that provides for a 3% real reduction in Pentagon spending.

Approved by a vote of 283 to 128 in the House and on a voice vote in the Senate, the bill promises a 3% military pay raise next Jan. 1, slows the growth in spending for Reagan’s “Star Wars” space-based nuclear defense system and ends a 17-year ban on chemical weapons production. It also calls on the President to continue observing the terms of the 1979 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty but does not require him to do so.

Shortly after passing the Pentagon bill, the House also voted 235 to 172 for a record $576-billion omnibus spending measure that would fund the Pentagon as well as a dozen other government agencies in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Among other things, it gives Reagan the $100 million he has been seeking for several years to fund the Nicaraguan rebels. The omnibus measure now goes to the Senate.

The two spending bills advanced, despite a strenuous protest vote by many liberals who were angered that the Democratic leadership in Congress had decided not to challenge Reagan on compliance with the 1979 treaty in the immediate aftermath of his summit with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

“If SALT falls to pieces, I don’t think that we will have an easy time putting it back together again,” warned Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.).

President Satisfied

In a letter to congressional leaders, Reagan urged the lawmakers to pass the mammoth spending bill and indicated that his earlier objections to the measure had been satisfied. The President’s letter played an important role in persuading many conservative Republicans to swallow their objections to the hefty money package.

Although the government’s spending authority technically was to have expired at midnight, Reagan Administration officials announced that the bureaucracy would continue to function today in expectation that Congress will have completed work on the spending bill by the end of the day. Government workers were told to report for work as usual.

Many House members clearly were chagrined that Congress had not yet funded any single agency for fiscal 1987, causing them to resort to passing one huge spending bill. “It’s nothing to be proud of, two weeks into the fiscal year, to stand up here and not to have passed a single appropriations bill,” said Rep. Silvio O. Conte (R-Conn.).

The smaller Pentagon bill, which Reagan is expected to sign, was the last hurrah for retiring Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.), who noted that for the second consecutive year the Congress has failed to increase defense spending even enough to account for inflation.

“We are cutting too much from defense,” he declared. “Now let’s not kid ourselves. Anyone who thinks we can go on cutting the defense budget to the point where we actually have declining growth rates of more than 3% a year without undermining our defense posture is indulging in a happy but unrealistic delusion. I have a terrible sense that we are returning to the irresponsible policies of the late 1970s.”

Compliance With SALT II

Yet the most controversial aspect of the defense bill was the President’s threat to violate the 1979 treaty later this year after adjournment of the 99th Congress, when the nation’s 131st B-52 bomber will be equipped with air-launched cruise missiles. Liberals argued that since Reagan had failed to negotiate a new agreement in Iceland, he should be required by Congress to continue to abide by the unratified treaty.

“If we really want to get arms control, we have to act now,” declared Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.). “I read the compromise language as really giving us nothing.”

Democratic leaders had agreed to the non-binding, compromise language on the treaty issue before the Iceland summit, and sources within the leadership said Wednesday that they were happy to have done so because the President cannot now blame them for his failure to reach agreement with Gorbachev. In addition, they feared that any renewed effort to challenge Reagan’s arms policy would be viewed as unpatriotic at this delicate stage in U.S.-Soviet relations.

Democrats Critical

Yet Democrats were openly critical of Reagan’s performance in Iceland and expressed concern that the President might touch off another arms race by violating the 1979 treaty in their absence. “I think he should have taken the deal,” declared House Armed Services Committee Chairman Les Aspin (D-Wis.), referring to Gorbachev’s final offer.

In the Senate, liberal and moderate senators on both sides of the aisle emphasized that the compromise does not give Reagan a free hand to violate SALT II. “I don’t think anyone should be given the impression that we have given a green light to the President to go ahead and breach the limits of that treaty,” said Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Me.).

But conservatives such as Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) strongly disagreed and encouraged the President to do whatever he thinks would be in the national interest.

‘Treaty Never Ratified’

“The treaty has never been ratified,” Dole said. “It’s never even been called up. Yet some think it is written in stone.”

Aspin predicted that the 100th Congress will act quickly early next year to insist upon compliance with the pact, even if Reagan has already violated it. He also predicted that if Reagan continues to refuse to use “Star Wars” as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the Soviets, Congress will further cut funding for the program.

The defense bill provides $3.5 billion for “Star Wars” research--an increase of $500 million over the current year but $1.8 billion less than the President sought. It also continues the current ban on testing of anti-satellite weapons; permits production of a new binary chemical weapon, the 155-millimeter artillery shell; allows production of 12 MX missiles; prohibits production of more than 100 B-1 bombers; provides $1.2 billion for development of the small, mobile missile known as Midgetman, and includes some modest procurement reforms such as a formal grievance process for contractor employees who have been harassed for blowing the whistle on abuses.

Angola Oil Purchases

Another provision of the bill, directed at the California-based Chevron Corp., bars the Pentagon from buying petroleum from any firm that has purchased oil from Angola.

These defense provisions were identical to those contained in the mammoth $576-billion spending measure, which was approved earlier on Wednesday by a House-Senate conference committee.

Funding for foreign aid programs was one of the last stumbling blocks in House-Senate negotiations on the massive spending measure. On Wednesday, the conferees agreed to spend $13.4 billion on foreign aid--or 8% less than last year and 14% below the President’s request.